Never Fade part 2
by Karabella15
Summary: This story continues where Never Fade left off, with Ruby, Liam, Chubs, Cole, Vida, and everyone else in the story.
1. Chapter 1

From Ruby's point of view.

Chapter One

Clancy stared at the papers in my hand, his expression incredulous, as understanding dawned on him. He realized that I must have pulled the papers out of the fire he had set in the garbage can, saving the research from his attempt to destroy it. His eyes were wide, and satisfaction set in me as I saw the terror in his face, and the fact that I had stopped him from his mission.

"You…" he breathed. "I can't believe it."

I nearly smiled at his horror. Behind me, Liam, Chubs, Vida, Cole, and everyone else were just standing there, everyone's eyes on the papers I was holding. I stood after a moment, and I turned to everyone standing behind me. A few of the men and women training their guns on Clancy moved towards him and yanked him up by his filthy arms, and he acquiesced with only a grunt as they dragged him towards a tree nearby.

We still had to make contact with Cate, and Liam, Cole and Vida walked a few feet away with me to discuss that.

"We need to find out where Cate is," Cole said, voicing my thoughts. "We need to establish contact with her and get the flash drive from her.

From the hill we were standing on, overlooking the city below, I could see tiny little soldiers flooding through the streets, and plumes of black smoke rose from the tops of dilapidated skyscrapers and buildings. The sight was terrifying, and it reminded me of Jude. I almost collapsed from grief right there on the spot, but I knew I had to keep going for the other kids that needed shelter.

"We need to get to the ranch," Cole said as I was thinking it. "Before the soldiers find us on this mountaintop and we're either all captured or shot to hell."

I looked at Liam, and I could see that we were thinking about the same thing. "Are you still going to leave after all this?" I asked him, and I could hear the hurt in my voice as I said it. I was afraid that he would leave, and I'd be forced to choose. And I didn't want to have to do that.

"I have to," Liam said. "I can't stay here. These people…" His voice trailed off. "So I guess the question now is: are you coming with us?"

I exhaled, my throat still feeling dusty. Cole could take care of the kids here-that I was sure of-but I felt like I had to stay to help. Now that Jude wasn't here, I wouldn't be tied to the League with his loyalty, and I would never leave him, but there was Vida, and I wasn't sure if she'd come with me a second time. I didn't want to leave her, even though she was more than capable of taking care of herself. I wanted to find Cate, though, and find the flash drive.

So I guess the thing I was most worried about was Liam himself. What would happen if I was to go with him and Chubs? Would he still be angry with me for what I did to him, or would he forgive me and go back to the way he was? I didn't know if I was ready to find out yet.

"I don't know," I decided, and I could see Liam's face turning shadowy. He knew what that most likely meant. "I need to think about it," I said. "I don't want to just give up on the people here, when they need me more than ever. They have to get to the ranch, where it's safe. And, we have to find Cate and the flash drive. There are so many things here that have to be done, and they can't be done in California."

Liam seemed hurt, and it killed me to say that to him. But, his next words surprised me.

"I'll make you a deal," he said. "If you promise to go with us when these kids reach the ranch and we find the flash drive, then I'll stay with you and help you. I'm sure Chubs will stay too."

I was shocked that he would be willing to do that, just to get me to come with him. "Really?" I said, not sure if my mind was making things up. "O-okay, definitely. Definitely."

He grinned. "Well then let's do it, darlin'."

He leaned forward and gave me a peck on the cheek, his shaggy brown hair brushing up against my dirty cheek, and warmth blossomed within me. Maybe, just maybe, this could all be resolved, and things could go back to the way they were. I felt hope spark within me.

I should have known that it couldn't, wouldn't be that easy.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

From Liam's point of view.

The way she smiled at me after I proposed my deal with her, it made me want to bash my head into a tree. She was so ridiculously beautiful, and she didn't even know it. Even with dust and dirt and dried blood smeared over her face.

At the same time, though, I was worried. I was sad. I felt so sorry for Jude, Ruby's best friend, and I felt so sorry for all the other kids who had died today. I felt sickened when I looked out over the bombed city of Los Angeles, disgusted that the president, of all people, would bomb a town full of innocent people. And I felt completely pissed off at the idiot son of the president.

Speak of the devil, Clancy started to talk. I felt my insides coil, and I just wanted to walk right up to him and sock him in his busted, bruised face. For what he did to all these kids, especially Ruby. I had to restrain myself from beating him to a pulp.

"So what's the plan?" Clancy said in his mocking-yet-still-smooth-voice, directing his question towards my brother. My stupid, stupid brother.

Cole turned towards him from where we were standing and walked towards him a few paces. A couple of the kids, some kid I didn't recognize and that Blue named Vida, who had just moved out of our circle to "guard" Clancy, still had their guns trained on his head. From the look in Vida's eye, I could tell that if Clancy so much as sneezed, she'd send a bullet straight through his skull.

"What's the plan?" Cole repeated, an edge of incredulousness in his voice. "You don't need to know anything except for the fact that we'll be happy to kill you if you do _anything _besides breathing, eating, sleeping, and complying."

Clancy narrowed his eyebrows, and I could see the annoyance worming its way under his skin, but he didn't let it on. He just turned his head and huffed.

Cole regrouped with Chubs, Ruby, and I, and we circled in tightly to make sure that none of our words escaped to Clancy's prying ears. I just hoped that he wouldn't slip into anyone's minds, although with Ruby here, she could probably stop that in an instant. Even if he did get any information, he wouldn't last very long with it.

"Um, not to be annoying, but what _is _the plan?" I asked, and all eyes went on me.

"Well," Cole said, shooting me a look, "as we all know, we need to get these kids to the ranch. Which happens to be nearly four hundred miles away. So yeah. It's a bit hard to get dozens of kids through a destroyed city with guards crawling the streets. Oh, and by the way, they have guns. _Big _guns."

"What if all of us use our abilities to help us get out?" Ruby asked.

"Well that's the question, isn't it, Gem?" Cole said, and this time, I was the one shooting him a look. "We can, but it may not help us. Trying to smuggle dozens of kids out of here, on top of trying to hide the fact that they're freaks-"

"Well isn't that pretty noticeable already?" I said. "I mean, how could teenagers possibly be alive if IAAN killed all kids except ones that were given abilities?"

Cole narrowed his eyes at me. "I _know _that. I'm just saying that it won't exactly hide us from view."

"Guys," Ruby said insistently, and she snapped me back to reality, to needing to focus. "Come on. We can't just stand here fighting while the guards could be getting closer and closer to us."

"She's right," I said, and Cole smirked at me. "No, really. We need to get these kids out of here before the PSFs get to us."

"We need to think of a logical plan," Chubs said. "And I think I have just the plan we need."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

From Ruby's point of view.

Chubs explained his plan to us, and as he articulated the roles that each of us would have, it made perfect sense to me. It was a brilliant plan that he had come up with so easily and quickly. Sometimes he made me feel like a low-grade moron.

The sound of soldiers began to sound louder, so I knew that we needed to move. I had the hardest role of all, so I went to prepare myself while everyone else began running north. I could hear the soldiers clearly as they ran up the hill, and as they emerged on the hilltop, I realized that my hands were shaking. I tried to calm my shaky breathing and focus.

From my position in the forest nearby, hidden in a bush, I could see just how many soldiers had come this way. About twenty soldiers held large assault rifles in their hands, bullet-proof vests strapped on their chests and big helmets on their heads. I focused on the guard nearest me, a man with red hair that stood about ten feet away, and I unfurled the invisible fingers of my mind into his.

Slipping into his mind was easy. He was unsuspecting and didn't even flinch as I slid through his memories quickly, seeing myself holding the hand of a pretty woman in a wedding gown, a freckled child running around through the hallways of a big house, and soldiers next to me running down the streets of Los Angeles, right after the city was bombed. I ignored the memories and instead told the man to look straight at me. Then I pulled out of his mind, and he looked me straight in the eye and pointed.

"Over there!" he shouted, and all the soldiers turned towards me and began running in my direction.

I took off through the forest, leading the guards into it and running as straight south as I could. I ducked under branches and dodged around trees, trying to lead the soldiers as far away as I could. I could hear their heavy footsteps behind me, their boots crushing leaves and branches and ice on the forest floor. Adrenaline coursed through me as I ran farther and farther, my breath heavy and mist floating out in my wake.

When I couldn't run anymore, I did a complete turn around in the forest and ran back the way I came, relying on the dense brush to keep me out of sight of the guards. I could hear them continuing to run in southward, and I allowed myself to be hopeful that this might actually work.

But right as I started to slow my pace, I heard more shouts behind me, and I looked back to see several of the guards running towards me again. They must have doubled back just incase I was to do what I am doing right now. I curse and run faster again, but I have used up most of my stamina, and now, they are gaining on me.

Panic rushes through me, and I know that I have no chance against five armed guards. Even if I was to get into two of their heads, the other three would just keep going after me. Turning a couple of them against the others was worth a shot, but it was unlikely that it would work.

I stopped in the forest and hid behind a tree, and I heard the guards run up near me and stop, not hearing my footsteps anymore. I tried to calm my shaky breathing, but my heart was pounding in my chest, and it almost felt as though it would give me away.

I forced myself to calm down, and I peeked out from behind the tree quickly to see the guards' positions. I had to do what I was going to quickly, and I had twenty seconds at the most before the guards found my position. I focused on the guard nearest me and slipped into his mind smoothly, and I quickly told him to fire on the other guards in twenty seconds. Then I transferred to the next closest guard and ordered him to do the same thing, and did the same with a third guard. I was about to do the same thing with a fourth, but I heard the guards walking towards me right at that moment, and I hugged the tree with my body and waited.

Two seconds later, the sounds of gunfire rang through the forest, and the three unsuspecting guards shouted in surprise. I heard one of them drop to the leafy ground, presumably dead, but the other two returned fire as the guards I possessed continued to empty out the magazines of their assault rifles. I heard another body fall to the ground with a thud, but I wasn't sure if was one of the ones I was controlling or one of the soldiers.

More bodies fell, and when the gunfire finally ceased several seconds later, I darted my head out from behind the tree to observe the area. Four bodies lay on the ground, but one was missing.

Before I could turn around or even register the footsteps in my mind, a hand grabbed me, and I screamed and whirled around. The final guard held his assault rifle up to my head, pressing the cold metal against the back of my neck. I held my hands up in surrender, but he quickly handcuffed them behind my back, pressing my body into the icy dirt, and pulled a radio off of his belt.

I needed to figure something out quickly before he could signal the guards. My brain was too scrambled from panic to think of taking over his mind, but even if I had thought of it, I wouldn't have had enough time. My hands strained against the plastic tie binding my hands, but it was too strong to break. Here I was again, tied up by somebody who wanted nothing more than to lock me away and probably kill me.

Just as the soldier pressed the button on the radio and opened his mouth to speak, the radio flew out of his hand, and he looked in utter confusion at the ground ten feet away where it had fallen. I was confused too, but then it dawned on me.

Suddenly, the soldier was lifted into the air by invisible hands, and he shouted in terror as he was thrown into a nearby tree. His body smashed limply into the branches, and he fell to the ground, apparently unconscious and probably dead.

I looked up at the figure, now clear even in the fading light, and his face looked so beautiful in the pink sunlight. Liam grinned down at me and pulled me to my feet.

"Got into some trouble, huh?" he asked as he cut the bonds on my hands with a pocket knife. "You gotta be more careful, darlin'."

I turned around and looked at him straight in the face. "Well you're not the one who had to lead twenty guards far into the forest and endanger your life to protect dozens of injured kids that just had their home blown up."

I was partially joking, and I think that he could tell. "Well excuse me," he said. "I'm sorry for insulting you."

I grew serious and stopped the mad grin that had spread across my face. "Thank you for coming back for me," I said.

"Hey, no problem. That's what friends do, right?"

It felt good to be qualified as his friend, but it also hurt that we weren't more than that. I wanted to be so much more. And he had told me himself that he too wanted more, but it seemed like in some way, he was still mad at me for erasing his memories of me without his knowing.

Sounds of more guards echoed through the forest, and I looked at Liam in surprise. We both ran through the forest, not a word spoken between us, and I followed him out of the forest and northward. The group of kids had gotten far, but not far enough to not be seen by the soldiers. We reached the group after five more minutes of non-stop running, and we were completely out of breath by the time we ran up to Cole, Chubs and Vida.

"Ruby led them away," Liam managed to say through gulps of air.

Cole grinned at me. "Nice job, Gem."

"But," Liam added, and Cole raised an eyebrow, "they're coming back out of the forest, and they could see us out in the open like this."

The group was positioned in a large field of grass surrounded by acres of trees, and the group was slowly heading towards the cover of the forest, but not fast enough. The soldiers would see us before we could reach them.

"Then we need to move," Cole said. And we did.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

From Liam's point of view.

The whole group ran towards the forest surrounding the field as fast as possible, which actually wasn't that fast. Ruby jogged next to me, her hair swaying behind her as her feet bounced off the ground, and I couldn't tear my eyes away from her face, her lovely face, even after I bumped into my brother in front of me.

She had no idea how obsessed I was with her, and I cursed myself for calling us just friends. I could see the hurt in her face when I said that, and I should have corrected myself, told her that we were more than friends, but we had to run, and now it was too late. I'd have to take the chance the next time I got it, to explain to her how I felt, how I wasn't still mad with her despite what she thought. I don't know if she'd believe me even if I told her, though. I guess that was a risk I would eventually have to take.

When we were about ten yards away from the forest, I looked back over my shoulder as we kept running, and I could see the soldiers cresting the top of the hill overlooking this field. My eyes widened, and I grabbed my brother's shoulder.

"Soldiers," I said concisely, nodding my chin to the fifteen soldiers about to look at us.

"Everyone get down!" he shouted, and everyone immediately dropped to the ground and hid in the tall grass.

From my position next to Ruby, I could see the guards surveying the field for a few moments, and, apparently seeing nothing, turned back around and headed towards the city again. I released of breath of air from my lungs, relieved that we had not been seen.

Ruby smiled at me, relieved as well. I felt a little rush of heat inside of me at her smile. "Phew," she said. "That was a close one."

I smiled back, my nerves still a little tense from a small rush of adrenaline. I nodded at Cole, and he nodded back and told everyone that they could stand up.

"We need to get to the forest right now," Cole called out, "before the guards come looking again. If they do, we may not be as lucky."

We began jogging towards the forest again, and we reached it within a moment. After about half an hour, Cole called for a break, and all the kids dropped down against trees. We stood in a small clearing in the woods, packed dirt and tree roots beneath our feet, and I could see that it was getting dark. Cole, Ruby, Chubs, Vida and I called a meeting, and two Blue kids guarded Clancy all the while with guns pushed up against his head. He stared at us while we talked with a sly look on his face.

"What are we going to do with Clancy?" I asked in a hushed voice, watching his surreptitious expression, like he was planning something so clever. I just wanted to punch that smirk off his face so badly.

"I still haven't decided yet," Cole said, and then I looked at him, trying to wipe Clancy's face out of my mind. "I was thinking that maybe we can use him as leverage if we ever get into some trouble with the soldiers. We might regret…disposing…of him if we ever run into the PSFs."

"I'm trying very hard not to strangle him," I said, "but it's getting more and more difficult every time I look at his smug little face." Ruby chuckled next to me, and I had to stop myself from staring at her obviously.

"The smart course of action is to keep him for leverage, like Cole said," Chubs said.

"For once, I agree with Poky Little Puppy," Vida said helpfully. Chubs glared at her. "Despite the fact that I desperately want to kill him, he could be useful. And if he's not, then I'll personally do the honors of shooting him in the face."

"Even though I hate having him around with every bone in my body," Ruby said, "I'm thinking the same thing as you guys. He may be very useful if we get into any trouble."

"It's decided then," Cole said. "We'll keep him for now.

"On another note, I think we should camp out here. This is a good place for everyone to lie down, and we can keep guard in shifts. I think that the guarding should stick primarily to us, so I'll take the first shift with Vida and Chubs. Liam and Ruby, I think you can handle the second half of the night."

I wasn't too eager to spend half a night alone with Ruby, for fear of her still being angry or just ignoring me, but I knew that Cole was pairing us up in smart groups, so I didn't question his decision. I could tell that Ruby wasn't very fond of that idea either, though, because her face had a look of discomfort on it, like she was already picturing four hours alone with each other.

We all dispersed among the kids to help them settle in for the night, and Chubs cleaned wounds from the explosion. I walked around helping kids find comfortable places on the packed dirt, and about fifteen minutes later, when the sky was nearly fully dark, I finally finished helping the kids and then went with Chubs to find wood for a fire.

As we walked out in the forest, guns strapped on our sides, Chubs kept staring at me. I could feel his eyes on my face, but I kept my eyes straight forward, placing one foot in front of the other.

"Is something wrong?" he finally asked.

"No, unless you consider the destruction of the entire city of Los Angeles by the hands of the country's president to be something wrong," I said, and I instantly felt bad for snapping at him when he was just being nice. He didn't seem very hurt by it, but he chose to leave it alone and not say anything else for a little while.

As we found kindling and branches for our fire, the chill of the night seeped under my coat and cut into my bones, and I pulled my coat tighter around me to try to block myself from the wind. It was already cold in the daytime, but now, in the dark with only the moon for a dim light, I was freezing. I could see tiny snowflakes falling after a little while, which just made me feel worse.

As we walked, I tried to sort through all the conflicting thoughts in my head. I felt sadness for Jude, Ruby's friend, and for all the other kids who were killed in the explosion. I felt hatred for Clancy, that horrible scumbag that laid hands on Ruby and attacked his own mother. I felt exhaustion from all the things that had happened that day. I felt pain from my wounds and from my situation with Ruby. But most of all, I felt desire for Ruby, for her lovely face and wonderful personality and strength and kindness.

After a little while longer, we had found enough wood, so we brought it back to our camp. Cole came over to help us build the fire.

"Let me light it," he said. "We did this on our camping trip when I was 13 and you were 10, remember?"

He smiled as he said it, and he took two sticks and rubbed them together. A second later, fire sprang out from the twigs and engulfed the kindling in flame. I marveled at his ability to make the fire.

"Whoa, how did you do that so easily?" I asked.

He exchanged a look with Ruby, almost like they had their own secret or joke, and then he grinned and looked back at me. "I guess it's just from practice."

I nodded, not very convinced but too tired to bother pressing him. We had no food with us, so I found a spot on the edge of our camp and slept until my shift.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

From Ruby's point of view.

I absolutely did not want to spend four hours alone with Liam, but when Cole woke me up around three in the morning, I had no choice but to haul myself up from the cold ground and stand on the north border of the camp in the freezing cold. Liam stood on the south side, so at least I didn't have to interact with him then.

But after about an hour of just staring into the dark forest, I heard footsteps behind me, and I turned around to see Liam walking up behind me. I took a deep breath of freezing air and exhaled, realizing that I was going to have to face him eventually.

"Hi," he said simply.

"Hi," I said back quietly.

"How are you?" he asked, then added quickly as if realizing something, "I mean, considering everything that happened today."

"Fine, I guess," I said. In reality, I didn't feel fine, but it wasn't like I was about to let him on all my personal secrets. I wanted to, but I couldn't.

"No you're not," he said, and I froze. "I know you. When you say fine, you don't mean fine."

"I don't say fine that much," I said, but he wasn't hearing it.

"But my point is that you're not fine. I can tell. You're upset about everything that happened, and that's to be expected. You just lost one of your best friends, your…home…was destroyed, many kids were injured and killed, and you have no idea where Cate is with the most important information ever in a little black stick that could possibly be already taken. Not to mention, you and I aren't exactly on the best of terms."

I didn't say anything to that, but he was right. Especially with the last part. I wished it were different, but there wasn't much I could do about it. I was just going to have to accept what I did and the consequences for it.

"I can't change that," Liam continued. "But I can change the last part. Us. We can be changed."

He stopped, clearing his throat, like he was having difficulty getting the words out. "I want to go back to…how we were before you…erased my memories. I liked how we were, loved it, and I miss it. I miss you. Ruby, I miss you."

I could feel tears gathering in my eyes, but I sniffed and tried to clear them.

He stepped a little closer, and I didn't try to back away from him. He reached his hand out, as if beckoning for me to take it, and I looked in his eyes. His blue eyes told me that he wanted me to take his hand, but I wasn't sure how he would react if I did.

"Ruby," he said softly. "I can't stop thinking about you. You dominate my mind, every waking moment. I can barely focus on what we're doing."

Then he laughed. "Look; I can barely make any sense. That's the result of thinking about you, Ruby."

He kept saying my name, and it drove me crazy. It made me heat up like a firework and explode in a million pieces. I just wanted to take his hand and throw myself against him, against his smoky warmth, but I couldn't.

Liam held his hand out farther, and I finally couldn't take it anymore. I reached out, my fingertips brushing against his and sending bolts of lightning through my hand, and held his hand. His palms were warm despite the freezing cold, and he held my hand gently.

Liam pulled me towards him, and before I knew what was happening, he was pulling me into his arms. His chest was warm, and I could hear his heart beating beneath his leather jacket and shirt. I put my arms around him and held him tightly, and it felt so good. I had wanted this for so long, and now I finally had it. I finally had him.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

From Liam's point of view.

"Ruby," I whispered, and I held her tighter. I buried my face in her hair, breathing in her sweet scent. I had wanted this for so long, and now I finally had it. I almost couldn't contain my desire for her.

Heat radiated off of her in rays, and I soaked it up as we stood there embracing tightly, almost urgently. I raised my hand up to her face and cupped her chin in my palm, tilting her head up to look at mine. Her eyes were glistening, the moon light bringing out the honey color in them, and I just wanted to absorb that color. It was the most beautiful color I'd ever seen, and I wanted to bathe in her eyes.

"Liam," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

I shook my head, staring her straight in her lovely eyes. "Don't be," I said. I felt bad now for guilting her. She was only trying to protect me, and even if she erased my memory without my permission, or even without telling me, it was only in my best interest.

"Don't be sorry," I repeated.

She sniffed, and a tear rolled down her cheek. She closed her eyes, and it was almost as though some of the light in the air was extinguished. But I closed my eyes too, and I slowly closed the one inch of space between us and pressed my lips against hers.

Her lips were soft, just as I remembered. I had hungered for this for what felt like an eternity, and now I had it again. I held her face in my hand and put my other hand on the small of her back, pushing her into me again. We kissed slowly and deeply, and I hoped, wished it would never end.

The feeling of her lips against mine was so wonderful, so intoxicating, that I felt drunk. When Ruby pulled away, the frigid air filled in the space between us, and I was brought back to reality with a startling snap. I almost felt sad that we had to break apart.

The corner of her lips quirked up, as in a smile, and I felt myself smiling softly. It took her hand again, and we stood side by side and guarded our camp.

The next day, when everyone woke up at the crack of dawn, Ruby still had a smile pasted on her face. She walked around camp clumsily, knocking into things, but with a grin still stuck on her face. Seeing her acting like that and mirroring my always-existing smile made me want to laugh even more. Cole, Vida and Chubs were staring at her with her goofy smile, but I didn't care. Cole had an amused look on his face, like he knew what we were smiling about. But even everyone's skepticism didn't take me out of my good mood.

As we were getting ready to leave our makeshift camp, I realized that even after the events of yesterday, I felt happier than I had in a long time. I hadn't realized how much I wanted, no, needed Ruby. She breathed life into me and made me a better person, and without her, I would be a lifeless husk. I had no idea how I was able to survive without her after she wiped my memory. When I met her after she wiped my memory, I knew immediately that I had met her before, even though I didn't know how, or when. It was like we were connected in a deeper way than I realized. After meeting Ruby, I believed in true love, or destiny. Because what we had really felt like true love.

Cole called for us to move out, and I walked at the back of the crowd of kids as we walked through the forest. For a little while, I observed the kids around me, and they all had the same look on their face. I couldn't place it, but after a minute, I moved up to where Cole, Chubs, Vida and Ruby were walking at the front of the group.

"We're going to need food soon," I told Cole. "I've been watching these kids, and they look hungry. They haven't eaten in nearly twenty-four hours, and soon they won't want to go on any more if they don't get food."

Cole sighed. "You're right. I was hoping that we could wait a little longer, but we can't."

He waved Chubs, Vida and Ruby over, and they walked closer in as we kept moving forward.

"We have to get food for these kids," Cole told them. "Liam just told me that he's been observing them, and they all look hungry. And they should be. They haven't eaten in a day, and they need food. Which we obviously don't have."

"What should we do?" Ruby asked, and I nearly melted at the sound of her voice.

"There's a town about ten miles north of Los Angeles," Chubs said. "It's on our way to Sacramento, so we won't be wasting time. We can go to an abandoned general store or grocery store there and pick up some food, maybe a few backpacks to hold it in. It shouldn't take too long, and it'll energize them for another day of walking."

Cole nodded. "Good idea. I think we should do that immediately. I'll tell everyone now."

Cole moved closer to the other kids and announced our plan, and once he had finished, we continued walking north. I was eager to get some food too, because my stomach felts empty, and it rumbled as we kept walking. My feet were sore from walking so long, and I felt filthy and grimy from the explosion yesterday, but my spirits were high despite all of this. It felt wrong to be so happy, but I felt entitled to some happiness after everything that had happened to me.

I looked at Ruby as we walked, and she smiled shamelessly at me. My stomach flipped in on itself, and I felt warmth flooding my body. It was the best feeling in the world.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

From Ruby's point of view.

I smiled at him, and when his face took on a dreamy sort of look, it made me want to laugh and cry at the same time. Laugh at how wonderfully happy I felt, and cry at how lucky I was to have him.

We kept walking north for a while, and after about half an hour, we finally reached the outskirts of a little town. I felt relieved that we had reached it, because I was so hungry that I felt nauseous. It was an awful feeling, but I wasn't that unaccustomed of it, thanks to Thurmond.

We had to get through a small residential area to get to the main part of town, so the group slowly made their way over a white washed picket fence around a house on the outside of the residential area. We passed several dilapidated houses, some with their front doors thrown open and the windows shattered, others looking calm and peaceful, but old. The sight of them made me slightly sad, because they made me remember what it was like to have a house of my own, but then to have it ripped away from me suddenly. But then I looked at Liam's face again, and I felt happy again, almost as if he was an everlasting fountain of joy.

We passed the suburbs after about five minutes, and then we had to walk a little longer until we saw a gas station and convenience store. Cole, Liam, Chubs, and I and a few other kids went inside to pick up supplies while Vida and another Blue kept a gun trained on Clancy outside the store.

We passed several collapsed gas pumps on the way in, dodging puddles of old gas and the pumps' rubber hoses outstretched in our path. Once we got through the minefield of gas pump obstacles, we got to the front of the store and tried the door, but it wouldn't budge. They were automatic opening doors, and they were stuck in place. Liam stepped forward and pressed his hands onto the glass, then rooted his feet steadily in place, leaning forward, and began to push against the doors. I grinned to myself as his face reddened slightly, and the doors began to slide apart. Once there was a crack between the doors, he pushed them apart farther, and we were able to slip through.

Once we were in, I saw Cole looking at Liam and shaking his head, and Liam grinning back and shrugging. I knew they were exchanging looks about what Liam had just done, and we all knew that he had done it to show off his strength for me. It made me feel good, though. Even though Liam could have used his ability to open the doors, he chose to use his own strength to open it. It made me feel special that he wanted to show off for me.

I looked around to first look for a bag of some sort, and I found a shelf with a few backpacks on it. I grabbed two and handed another one to Liam, who smiled at me again, making me melt some more. I snapped out of it and went to work, grabbing anything that looked like we could use it. I grabbed soap, toilet paper, mouthwash, Band-Aids, bottles of hydrogen peroxide, gauze, bottles of water, canned fruit and vegetables, canned soup, canned meat, boxes of non-expired and unopened crackers, and even more. Once my two backpacks were filled, I met up with the others at the front of the store, and I saw Chubs snacking on some little cake thing.

He saw me looking and glared at me. "What?" he said, raising his hands in question. "You have to be able to splurge sometime."

I hoisted my backpacks a little higher on my shoulders and took a glance at everyone else's loads. Liam had three backpacks hanging from his shoulders, Chubs had one, looking begrudgingly at Liam because of the apparent fact that he wouldn't let him carry more, Cole had two backpacks, and the other kid had a paper bag filled with more cans of food. We walked out of the store with the others, regrouping with everyone else on the road outside the gas station. The kids' eyes lit up when they saw all the bags, and even more when Cole announced that we would eat as soon as we got back in the forest. I was hungry myself, so I was definitely happy to finally have food.

We all headed through the rest of town to get to the forest again, and once we were under the safety of the trees, we pulled some of the food out of our backpacks and rationed it out among the kids. Everyone ate ravenously, including me, and I savored the feeling of actually having enough food to fill myself with.

I knew it wouldn't last, though. We had a long way to go, and we'd barely covered any ground. And that wasn't even all we had to cope with. There were also PSFs to elude, and the dangers of the natural world.

It was going to be a long trip.


End file.
